Acid Copper Plating

The acid copper plating process to electroplating thickness has as its purpose to provide considerable deposits of copper thickness for leveling and improve the surfaces of the various details with a remarkable aesthetic qualitative increase.

They can be made in thicknesses from 3 to 100 microns depending on the need

The copper plating is applied exclusively by galvanic, operating in electrolytic baths in which the object to copper acts as a cathode, while the anode is made from pure copper cathodes. Acid baths in the electrolyte consists of a concentrated solution of copper sulfate added with sulfuric acid to increase the electrical conductivity and improve the attack of the anodes.

The acid copper plating baths allow to obtain considerable thickness and compact, but have the drawback of not being usable for the direct copper plating of iron because these objects, immersed in the copper sulphate solution, giving rise to the so-called phenomenon of cementation. As a result, the copper plating of a certain thickness must be applied on objects of iron in two stages, first in an alkaline bath and then subjecting the object, the surface of which is now protected against carburizing with a thin layer of copper, at a later copper plating in an acid bath.

The copper plating is used both as a protection against atmospheric corrosion, both to improve the adherence and the protective value of subsequently applied nickel plating.